Gas prices going down in Red Deer

The Express caught up with Dan McTeague, senior petroleum analyst with Gas Buddy who gave us a load down on those high prices.

McTeague said from time to time gasoline stations are dropping their own retail margin.

“If I’m a gas station owner today in Red Deer it’s probably costing me about $1.21, $1.22 to buy my fuel, all taxes in wholesale. We’re starting to see prices move down much, much closer to that number than say what we saw last week at $131.9.”

He added that much of it is contingent on how quickly the two refineries in Edmonton come back online that have been offline not producing as much gasoline given their scheduled maintenance.

And it’s not just Alberta that had those scorchingly high prices compared to other years. Places in the Lower Mainland looked at $1.619.

“Right now they’re by far the most expensive place to buy fuel in North America of any major city,” said McTeague.

Prices in Alberta have been higher than that of Saskatchewan, where people could get gasoline for between $1.20 and $1.25.

“That is of course with retailers having a bit of a margin,” he said, adding that consumers don’t pay for a 7 cent carbon tax in the Province of Saskatchewan along with in Manitoba until Sept. 1st.

Parts of Ontario sat at $1.37, while Montreal, with the highest taxes of any community in North America, displayed $1.479. The Maritimes pushed into that $1.29 range, with increases expected.

In Alberta, McTeague said people were paying about 19 cents a litre more than they paid at this time last year.

“It really depends on what day of the week you choose to apply that number because it does vary,” he said.

Overall in Canada, McTeague said they’ve seen prices on average move up to the $1.33 range, a cause for concern, he said, for many people.

“Across much of Alberta we’re seeing prices that we haven’t seen in quite some time, average being about $1.31, $1.30, $1.29. That’s still 29 cents higher than last year on average.”

He said there are a few factors to consider as to why those prices are higher.

One is that crude is up.

“Oil is up about $19 or $20 a barrel from this time last year.”

While crude is up – Canadian version of crude – Western Canadian Select hasn’t gone up $20 a barrel, and as a result it’s severely impacting the value of the Canadian dollar.

“That’s important because we price all of our gasoline in US dollars, so if your Canadian dollar starts to lose momentum or the price of fuel starts going up like oil, which is globally traded and globally priced, you start falling back,” said McTeague.

The two refineries in Edmonton, he said, are also a factor. They are currently going through spring time maintenance, pushing up the prices a bit by 3 of 4 cents a litre, which will start to come down.

And lastly, higher taxes is another factor.

Although Alberta’s prices are dropping slowly but surely, McTeague said, “The Lower Mainland is in real trouble and don’t look for any major relief there.”